US Urges Armenia, Azerbaijan To Resume Work With Minsk Group - State Dept.

US Urges Armenia, Azerbaijan to Resume Work With Minsk Group - State Dept.

The United States is calling on Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue their work with the Minsk Group in order to achieve a lasting end to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2020) The United States is calling on Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue their work with the Minsk Group in order to achieve a lasting end to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Thursday.

"We urge the Governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume work with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to reach a lasting, peaceful end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Biegun said at the OSCE Ministerial Council Plenary Session. "This dispute will not be resolved on the battlefield."

Biegun also said he welcomed the cessation of hostilities, adding that this is just the first step.

"Any enduring solution must be based on the principles in the Helsinki Final Act," he said.

In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin together with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, signed a joint statement on the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ceasefire agreement paved the way for the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the region. Russian peacekeepers are helping to rebuild power lines, gas pipelines, communication lines and transformer substations in Nagorno-Karabakh.